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Parents of Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old resort receptionist whose body was found near Rishikesh in 2022, met senior officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the headquarters and sought narco-tests on former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore and actress Urmila Sanawar to establish the facts, people familiar with the development said.
The parents, accompanied by BJP MP Anil Baluni, met two special directors, Manoj Sashidhar and Sampat Meena, and discussed other aspects of the case.
The meeting came two days after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met them at a dharna they staged at India Gate against the appointment of former Uttarakhand BJP in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim.
Ankita’s parents were detained by the Delhi police on Thursday from the India Gate, following which Rahul accused PM Narendra Modi-led government of trying to “silence” them.
“Today, Ankita Bhandari’s father, Virendra Singh Bhandari and mother, Soni Devi, met with senior officials at the CBI headquarters in Delhi and provided information regarding various aspects related to the case,” a CBI spokesperson said.
“CBI officials assured them that the investigation would be conducted in a fair and impartial manner, with all aspects of the case being duly examined,” the spokesperson added.
“Ankita’s parents also gave a letter demanding narco-tests on both Rathore and Sanawar saying their audio recording recently went viral and it had allegations of involvement of a senior BJP leader in the case,” an officer requesting anonymity said.
Gautam has not been named as an accused in the case and has denied allegations linking him to Bhandari’s murder.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders in Uttarakhand on Friday conducted a bike rally here in Uttarakhand demanding justice in the Ankita Bhandari murder case and called for a stay on Dushyant Gautam’s appointment as Sikkim governor till CBI concludes its probe.
Earlier, Uttarakhand police conducted an investigation in the case and arrested three accused persons. On May 30, 2025, the Additional District and Sessions Court in Kotdwar convicted the three accused - identified as Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta - and sentenced them to rigorous life imprisonment.
Ankita Bhandari worked at the Vanantra resort in Pauri Garhwal. She went missing on September 18, 2022, barely three weeks into the job, and her body was recovered from a canal days later. The case set off protests across Uttarakhand and sustained public anger over how the early investigation was handled.
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